What started as a whim at a dinner party has grown into an integral part of modern life, and is on track to surpass US cable television in paid viewership.
YouTube, the world's leading online video platform, has come a long way since its inception 20 years ago. From a "fun" project by three colleagues at PayPal, YouTube has now become a "giant" in the entertainment and media industry.
Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim, three former PayPal employees, came up with the idea for YouTube in 2005, at a dinner party. The domain name YouTube.com officially launched on Valentine's Day that year.
The ability to upload videos to the platform was added on April 23, when Karim posted his first video, titled “Me at the Zoo.” The 19-second clip, which shows Karim in the San Diego Zoo’s elephant enclosure, has been viewed 348 million times.
YouTube started out as a video hosting service for geeks who wanted to rewatch Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl gaffe, and has now become the world’s largest digital video service in terms of time spent and advertising revenue, said eMarketer analyst Ross Benes.
According to market tracker Statista, YouTube will reach more than 2.5 billion viewers worldwide by 2024, with the number of paid subscribers and listeners reaching 100 million. According to Google, users worldwide watch more than one billion hours of YouTube on television alone.
Looking back 20 years, it would have been hard to believe that a user-generated online video platform, seemingly insignificant at first, could compete with traditional giants like Disney, ABC and CBS, said Mr. Benes.
YouTube's breakthrough came from challenging traditional TV giants without the need for studios or expensive production costs, with users creating and uploading content.
The platform hosts everything from concert clips, political campaign ads, how-to videos, and more.
According to Mr. Benes, the constant flow of new content is like a “waterpipe” that cannot be turned off, giving viewers something new to watch. According to Google, more than 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.
Analysts see Google's $1.65 billion acquisition of YouTube in 2006 as a pivotal moment, combining Google's search and advertising expertise with a video-sharing platform with a passionate user base.
YouTube is expected to surpass all US cable TV services in the number of paid subscribers within the next two years, according to Mr. Benes.
The platform competes with streaming services like Netflix, Disney, and Amazon Prime, as well as short-form video platforms like TikTok and Instagram's Reels. To compete with TikTok's popularity, YouTube introduced a "Shorts" feature, which averages more than 70 billion views per day.
Robert G, a longtime YouTube video creator, said that in the past, YouTube's algorithm often prioritized videos from established creators, making it difficult for newcomers to reach an audience. However, YouTube has recently started to feature videos from emerging creators on the homepage.
He is happy about this change, as it gives new people the opportunity. Robert G expressed that YouTube is an indispensable part of his life and work./.
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